Systems, methods, and a storage medium for obtaining an offer for a sale of a product or a service

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for obtaining an offer for a sale of a desired product or a service are provided. The method includes iteratively transmitting a first signal including a first data message using a mobile transceiver device. Each of the first data messages includes information relating to the desired product or service. The method further includes receiving at least one of the first signals having the first data message and determining whether a product or service provider has the desired product or service available for sale. Finally, the method includes transmitting a second signal including a second data message to the mobile transceiver device. The second data message includes an offer to sell the desired product or service.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional application of U.S. Ser. No.10/777,358, filed Feb. 12, 2004, the contents of which are incorporatedby reference herein in their entirety.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to systems, methods, and a storage mediumfor automatically obtaining an offer for a sale of a desired product ora service.

BACKGROUND

Consumers many times desire to purchase a product or service at aparticular price. To find a provider or seller of the desired productsor services and a sales price thereof, consumers may review newspaperadvertisements, magazine advertisements, or catalog advertisements.Reviewing these sources of information may consume consider amounts oftime since the advertisements may not be directed to the desired productor service. In contrast, the advertisements may list numerous productsor services that a consumer is not interested in purchasing.Accordingly, there is a need for an automated system that would obtainan offer for sale of the desired product or service that a consumer isinterested in purchasing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method for obtaining an offer for a sale of a desired product orservice using electronic devices is provided. The method includesiteratively transmitting a first signal including a first data messageusing a mobile transceiver device. Each of the first data messagesincludes information relating to the desired product or service. Themethod further includes receiving at least one of the first signalshaving the first data message and determining whether a product orservice provider has the desired product or service available for sale.Finally, the method includes transmitting a second signal including asecond data message to the mobile transceiver device. The second datamessage includes an offer to sell the desired product or service.

A system for obtaining an offer for a sale of a desired product orservice is provided. The system includes a mobile transceiver deviceiteratively transmitting a first signal including a first data message.The first data message includes information relating to the desiredproduct or service. The system further includes a second transceiverdevice receiving at least one of the first signals and routing the firstdata message to a computer server. Finally, the system includes acomputer server having a database identifying products or services. Thecomputer server searches the database to determine whether a product orservice provider has the desired product or service available for sale.When the product or service provider has the desired product or serviceavailable for sale, the computer server generates a second data messageincluding an offer to sell the desired product or service and sends thesecond data message to the second transceiver device. The secondtransceiver device transmits a second signal having the second datamessage to the mobile transceiver device.

A storage medium encoded with machine-readable computer program code forobtaining an offer for a sale of a desired product or service isprovided. The storage medium includes instructions for causing at leastone device operatively associated with a system to implement a methodcomprising iteratively transmitting a first signal including a firstdata message using a mobile transceiver device. Each of the first datamessages has information relating to the desired product or service.

The method further includes receiving at least one of the first signalshaving the first data message and determining whether a product orservice provider has the desired product or service available for sale.The method further includes transmitting a second signal having a seconddata message to the mobile transceiver device. The second data messagecontains an offer to sell the desired product or service.

Other systems, methods, and computer program products according toembodiments will be or become apparent to one with skill in the art uponreview of the following drawings and detailed description. It isintended that all such additional systems, methods, and/or computerprogram products be included within this description, be within thescope of the present invention, and be protected by the accompanyingclaims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic of a system for obtaining an offer for a sale of aproduct or service.

FIG. 2 is a schematic of a data message containing information relatingto the desired product or service.

FIG. 3 is a schematic of a data message containing an offer to sell adesired product or service from a first product provider.

FIG. 4 is a schematic of a data message containing an offer to sell adesired product or service from a second product provider.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are flowcharts of a method for obtaining an offer for asale of a product or service.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to the drawings, identical reference numerals representidentical components in the various views. Referring to FIG. 1, a system10 for obtaining an offer for sale of a product or a service isprovided. System 10 allows an operator of a cellular telephone 12 toinput information related to a desired product or service. In analternate embodiment, system 10 determines a desired product or servicefrom the behavior patterns of the user of telephone 12, as described incommonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/736,470 filed on Dec.15, 2003. Cellular telephone 12 transmits or broadcasts a data messagecontaining a description of the desired product or services in order toobtain an offer from a desired product or service provider to sell adesired product or service.

As shown, system 10 includes a mobile transceiver device such ascellular telephone 12, a transceiver device 14, and a computer server16. System 10 may further include a transceiver device 18 and a computerserver 20. The computer server 18 may be associated with a first productor service provider and computer server 20 may be associated with asecond product or service provider.

For purposes of discussion, a mobile transceiver device comprises anymobile electronic device that can transmit and receive radio frequency(“RF”) signals. For example, mobile transceiver device can comprise: (i)a cellular telephone 12 or (ii) a personal data assistant (“PDA”) havingan internal transceiver. As shown, cellular telephone 12 includes amicroprocessor 22 that communicates with various computer readablestorage medium. The computer readable storage media preferably includesnonvolatile and volatile storage in a read-only memory ROM 26 and arandom access memory RAM 24. The computer readable medium may beimplemented using any of a number of known memory devices such as PROMs,EPROMs, EEPROMS, flash memory or any other electric, magnetic, opticalor combination memory device capable of storing data, some of whichrepresent executable instructions used by microprocessor 22.Microprocessor 22 communicates with various components of telephone 12via I/O interface 28.

Cellular telephone 12 further includes a speaker 30, a keypad 32, amicrophone 34, a transceiver 36, and a display screen 40. Speaker 30 isprovided to generate sound in response to signals received fromtransceiver 36. Speaker 30 is operably coupled to transceiver 36 via I/Ointerface 28. Microphone 34 is provided to generate signals in responseto sound generated by a user of telephone 12 that is received bytransceiver 36. Microphone 34 is operably coupled to transceiver 36 viaI/O interface 28.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, transceiver 36 is provided to transmit andreceive RF communication signals via antenna 38. As shown, transceiver36 is operably coupled to CPU 22 via I/O interface 28. In order toobtain an offer for sale or an advertisement related to a desiredproduct or service, CPU 22 periodically induces transceiver 36 totransmit an RF signal containing a data message, such as data message 70for example, including information describing a desired product orservice. In particular, transceiver 36 may be configured to transmit andreceive RF signals based on one or more communication standards. Forexample, the RF signals can be based on one or more of the 802communication standards, developed the IEEE, including: (i) the 802.11astandard also known as WiFi, (ii) the 802.11b standard, (iii) the802.11g standard, (iv) the 802.15.1 standard, (v) the 802.15.3 standard,and the (vi) 802.16 standard, or the like. Further, for example, the RFsignals could be based on one or more of the CDMA standard, the TDMAstandard, or the GSM standard, or the like. In particular, thetransceiver 36 may transmit and receive RF signals in at least two ormore communication standards or protocols. In other words, thetransceiver can cycle through multiple communication standards orprotocols and transmit RF messages in each communication standard orprotocol. Further, the transceiver 36 can detect an RF transmission in aparticular communication standard or protocol from another device andthen transmit RF messages in the predetermined communication standard inan attempt to set up a communication session with the other transmittingdevice. In an alternate embodiment, transceiver 36 could be configuredto transmit and receive modulated light signals.

It should be noted that the transmission of the RF signals fromtransceiver 36 including information relating to a desired product orservice, may not be transmitted to a predetermined or pre-specifiedproduct or service provider. Instead, the RF signals are broadcast andany product or service provider with a transceiver device within abroadcast range of the mobile transceiver device 12 can receive the RFsignals.

Keypad 32 is provided to allow a user of cellular telephone 12 to inputinformation relating to a desired product or service into a memoryassociated with CPU 22. In particular, CPU 22 may generate informationprompts on display screen 40 to obtain information on a user's desiredproducts or services. Keypad 32 is operably coupled to CPU 22 via I/Ointerface 28.

Referring to FIG. 2, an exemplary data message is shown that containsinformation relating to a user's desired products or services. Inparticular, CPU 22 may query the user of cellular telephone 12, ondisplay screen 40, to have the user input information relating to thefollowing information fields: (i) Product/Service Description, (ii)Desired Price Range, (iii) Request Expiration Date, and (iv) a RequesterID—in order to generate a data message 70. The Product/ServiceDescription field corresponds to a title of a desired product orservice. For example, Product/Service Description field could containthe following information: “Pioneer Car Radio XK102”, when the user isinterested in purchasing a car radio. The Desired Price Range fieldcorresponds to a price range that a user of cellular telephone 32 wouldbe willing to pay for the product or service described in theProduct/Service Description field. For example, the Desired Price Rangefield could contain the following information: “$90-120”, indicatingthat the user would pay between $90 and $100 for the car radio. TheRequest Expiration Date corresponds to the date and time, after whichthe user would not want to receive for sale for the product or serviceidentified in the Product/Service Description field. It should be notedthat the structure and content of the data message 70 could vary fromthe structure shown in FIG. 2. For example, the data message 70 could bemodified to correspond to a standard data message format desired by apredetermined service or product provider.

Transceiver device 14 is provided to receive RF signals from cellulartelephone 12 and to transmit RF signals to telephone 12. In particular,device 14 can receive a signal having a data message from computerserver 16 identifying a desired product or service. Thereafter, device14 can transmit a signal containing a data message to cellular telephone12 having an offer to sell the desired product or service. The device 14is configured to transmit RF signals based on one or more communicationstandards. For example, the RF signals can be based on one or more ofthe 802 communication standards, developed the IEEE, including: (i) the802.11a standard also known as WiFi, (ii) the 802.11b standard, (iii)the 802.11g standard, (iv) the 802.15.1 standard, (v) the 802.15.3standard, and the (vi) 802.16 standard, or the like. Further, forexample, the RF signals could be based on one or more of the CDMAstandard, the TDMA standard, or the GSM standard, or the like. Inparticular, the device 14 may transmit and receive RF signals in atleast two or more communication standards or protocols. In other words,the transceiver can cycle through multiple communication standards orprotocols and transmit RF messages in each communication standard orprotocol. Further, the device 14 can detect an RF transmission in aparticular communication standard or protocol from another device andthen transmit RF messages in the predetermined communication standard inan attempt to set up a communication session with the other transmittingdevice. As shown, device 14 communicates with CPU 44 via I/O interface50.

In an alternate embodiment, device 14 could communicate with CPU 44 viaa wireless communication network. In such an alternate embodiment,device 14 could be a mobile transceiver device. In another alternateembodiment, device 14 could be configured to transmit and receivemodulated light signals.

Transceiver device 18 is provided to receive RF signals from cellulartelephone 12 and to transmit RF signals to telephone 12. In particular,device 18 can receive a signal having a data message from computerserver 20 identifying a desired product or service. Thereafter, device18 can transmit a signal containing a data message to cellular telephone12 having an offer to sell the desired product or service. The device 18is configured to transmit RF signals based on one or more of thecommunication standards described above with respect to transceiverdevice 14. As shown, device 18 communicates with CPU 52 via I/Ointerface 58.

In an alternate embodiment, device 18 could communicate with CPU 52 viaa wireless communication network. In such an alternate embodiment,device 18 could be a mobile transceiver device. In another alternateembodiment, device 18 could be configured to transmit and receivemodulated light signals.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, computer server 16 can receive a first datamessage (e.g., data message 70) containing information relating todesired product or service, from cellular telephone 12 via transceiverdevice 14. The computer server 16 is further provided to determinewhether a first product or service provider (e.g. seller of the desiredproduct or service) associated with computer server 16 has the desiredproduct or service available for sale. As shown, computer server 16includes a CPU 44 operably coupled to a RAM 46, a ROM 48, and an I/Ointerface 50.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 3, computer server 16 may have a database (notshown) stored in ROM 48 containing a list of a plurality of products orservices, or both products and services available for sale by a firstproduct or service provider (e.g. XYZ Corporation). For example, thedatabase in ROM 48 can contain the following fields: (i) Product/ServiceDescription, (ii) Offering Price, (iii) Offeror Name, (iv) OfferExpiration Date, and (v) Offeror ID. CPU 44 can determine whether aProduct/Service Description data contained in the first data messagecorresponds to a Product/Service Description data in the database storedin ROM 48. When a desired product or service associated with theProduct/Service Description field of the first data message correspondsto a Product/Service Description field in the database of ROM 48, CPU 44generates a second data message, such as second data message 72,containing an offer to sell the desired product or service.

The remaining fields in the second data message 72 will now beexplained. The Offeror Name field corresponds to the name of the productor service provider offering a desired product or service for sale. Forexample, the Offeror field could contain the following information: “XYZCorporation”, indicating that offeror of the product or service is XYZCorporation. The Offer Expiration Date field corresponds to the date andtime in which the offer to sell the desired product or service expiresor is not longer valid. The Offeror ID field corresponds to anidentifier used by system 10 for directing the second data message tocellular telephone 12. For example, the Offeror ID field could containthe following information: “XYZ 100”, corresponding to routinginformation for communicating with cellular telephone 12.

After CPU 44 generates the second data message 72 containing an offerfor sale, CPU 44 transmits the second data message 72 via I/O interface50 to transceiver device 14. Thereafter, device 14 generates a secondsignal containing the second data message 72 and transmits the secondsignal to cellular telephone 12.

Computer server 20 can receive a first data message (e.g., data message70) containing information relating to desired product or service, fromcellular telephone 12 via transceiver device 51. Computer server 18 canfurther determine whether a first product or service provider (e.g.,seller or manufacturer) associated with computer server 20 has thedesired product or service available for sale. As shown, computer server20 includes a CPU 52 operably coupled to a RAM 54, a ROM 56, and an I/Ointerface 58.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 4, computer server 20 may have a database (notshown) stored in ROM 56 containing a list of a plurality of products orservices (or both products and services) available for sale by a secondproduct or service provider (e.g., XXX Corporation). For example, thedatabase in ROM 56 can contain the following fields: (i) Product/ServiceDescription, (ii) Offering Price, (iii) Offeror Name, (iv) OfferExpiration Date, and (v) Offeror ID, like the database stored in ROM 48discussed above, CPU 52 can determine whether a Product/ServiceDescription field contained in the first data message corresponds to aProduct/Service Description data in the database stored in ROM 56. Whena desired product or service associated with the Product/ServiceDescription field of the first data message corresponds toProduct/Service Description data in the database of ROM 56, CPU 52generates a third data message, such as data message 74, containing anoffer to sell the desired product or service.

After CPU 52 generates the third data message 74 containing an offer forsale, CPU 52 transmits the third data message 74 via I/O interface 50 totransceiver device 18. Thereafter, device 18 generates a third signalcontaining the third data message 74 and transmits the third signal tocellular telephone 12.

Thus, cellular phone 12 can communicate with a plurality of devices(e.g. computer servers 16, 20) to obtain a plurality of offers oradvertisements associated with a desired product or services.

Referring to FIGS. 2, 5 and 6, a method for obtaining an offer for saleassociated with a desired product or service will now be explained.Although cellular telephone 12 can receive data messages containingoffers for sale from computer server 16 (associated with a firstproduct/service provider) and computer server 20 (associated with asecond product/service provider), the method will only describe offersfor sale being received from computer server 16, for purposes ofsimplicity of understanding.

At step 80, cellular telephone 12 iteratively transmits a first signalincluding a first data message having information relating to a desiredproduct or service. For example, cellular telephone 12 can transmit afirst signal including a first data message 70 containing information ona desired product or service.

At step 82, transceiver device 14 receives at least one of the firstsignals and routes the first data message to computer server 16. Inparticular, device 14 routes the first data message 70 through I/Ointerface 50 to CPU 44.

At step 84, computer server 16 searches an internal database (not shown)listing products or services to determine whether a product or serviceprovider has the desired product or service available for sale. Inparticular, CPU 44 searches a database stored in ROM 48 to determinewhether a Product/Service Description data in the first data messagematches data in a Product/Service Description field of the internaldatabase.

At step 86, if computer server 16 determines that the product or serviceprovider has the desired product or service available for sale, and inthe current date and time has not exceeded the date and time listed inthe Request Expiration Date field, the method advances to step 88.Otherwise, the method returns to step 82.

At step 88, computer server 16 generates a second data message includingan offer to sell the desired product or service and sends the seconddata message to the transceiver device 14. In particular, CPU 44generates the second data message 72 and sends message 72 via I/Ointerface 52 to transceiver device 14.

At step 90, transceiver device 14 transmits a second signal having thesecond data message to cellular telephone 12.

At step 92, cellular telephone 12 receives the second signal and storesthe second data message 72 in ROM 26. In particular, transceiver 36receives the second signal and transmits the second data message via I/Ointerface 28 to CPU 22.

At step 94, a CPU 22 monitors a key (not shown) on keypad 32 todetermine whether a user has selected to view received offers for sale.If the value of step 94 equals “yes”, the method advances to step 96.Otherwise, the method returns to step 94 to wait until the user hasselected to view the received offers for sale.

At step 96, when the user has indicated a desire to view received offersfor sale, cellular telephone 12 displays the second data message on adisplay screen 40. In particular, CPU 22 can display second data message72 that comprises an offer for sale of a “Pioneer Car Radio XK102” ondisplay screen 40.

As discussed above, the foregoing method discloses a single data message(e.g. data message 72) being received by cellular telephone 12. Itshould be noted, however, that cellular telephone 12 can receive aplurality of data messages from a plurality of products/serviceproviders that are stored in ROM 26 by CPU 22. Further, each of theplurality of data messages can contain a separate offer for sale of adesired product or service. Thus, a user of cellular telephone 12 canview a plurality of data messages containing a plurality of offers forsale on display screen 40 to determine (i) the lowest price for aproduct or service and, (ii) the name of the product or serviceprovider.

In an alternate embodiment, CPU 22 of cellular telephone 12 can beconfigured to display only the data messages having the most desirableoffers for sale, received by telephone 12. In particular, CPU 22 can beconfigured to display on display screen 40 a predetermined number ofdata messages having offers for sale with the lowest prices (e.g.,lowest Offering Price), as compared to the other data messages. Further,if a user does not view the received offers for sale by an offerexpiration date, the CPU 22 can delete the expired offers for sale fromits memory.

The present systems, methods, and a storage medium for obtaining anoffer for a sale of a product or service represent a substantialadvantage over other systems and methods. In particular, the inventivemethod utilizes a cellular phone to iteratively transmit a data messagecontaining information relating to a desired product or service that canbe received by product or service providers having transceiver unitswithin a broadcast range of the cellular phone. When a product orservice provider receives the data message, the provider can transmit amessage containing an offer for sale of the desired product or serviceto the cellular phone. Thereafter, a user of the cellular phone can viewthe received offers for sale of the desired product or service—withouthaving to spend substantial amounts of time looking through magazinesand/or newspapers to determine where to purchase the product or service.Further, the user of the cellular telephone can compare prices frommultiple offers for sale of the desired product or service or otherdesired criteria related to the product or service.

While the invention has been described with reference to exemplaryembodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatvarious changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted forelements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. Inaddition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situationor material to the teachings of the invention without departing from theessential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the inventionnot be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed for carrying outthis invention, but that the invention will include all embodimentsfalling within the scope of the appended claims. Moreover, the use ofthe terms first, second, etc. do not denote any order or importance, butrather the terms first, second, etc. are used to distinguish one elementfrom another. Furthermore, the use of the terms a, an, etc. do notdenote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of atleast one of the referenced item.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for obtaining an offer for a sale of adesired item, comprising: a mobile transceiver device configured toiteratively transmit a first signal including a first data message, thefirst data message having information relating to the desired item, themobile transceiver device configured to cycle through multiplecommunication protocols to iteratively transmit the first signal; asecond transceiver device configured to receive the first signal androute the first data message to a computer server; and the computerserver having a database identifying items, the computer serverconfigured to search the database to determine whether a provider hasthe desired item available for sale; the computer server furtherconfigured to generate a second data message including an offer to sellthe desired item responsive to a determination that the provider has thedesired item available for sale and send the second data message to thesecond transceiver device, the second transceiver device configured totransmit a second signal having the second data message to the mobiletransceiver device; the mobile transceiver device configured to receivea plurality of additional offers to sell the desired item from aplurality of vendors; the mobile transceiver device configured toorganize the offer to sell the desired item and the plurality ofadditional offers to sell the desired item; and the mobile transceiverdevice configured to delete a subset of the offer to sell the desireditem and the plurality of additional offers to sell the desired item inresponse to the subset failing to meet a desired criterion.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1 wherein the information in the first data messageincludes an item identifier and a desired price of the desired item. 3.The system of claim 2 wherein the information in the first data messagefurther includes a request expiration wherein an offer to sell thedesired item is not desired after the request expiration date.
 4. Thesystem of claim 1 wherein the offer to sell the desired item in thesecond data message includes an item identifier and a price of thedesired item.
 5. The system of claim 4 wherein the offer to sell thedesired item in the second data message further includes an offerexpiration date wherein the offer to sell expires after the offerexpiration date.
 6. The system of claim 1 wherein the mobile transceiverdevice comprises a cellular telephone.
 7. The system of claim 1 whereinthe provider directly receives the first signal having the first datamessage at a store location.
 8. The system of claim 1 wherein theiterative transmission of the first signal occurs at predetermined timeintervals.
 9. The system of claim 1 wherein the mobile transceiverdevice includes a display screen, the mobile transceiver devicereceiving the second signal and displaying the second data message onthe display screen.
 10. A device for obtaining an offer for a sale of adesired item, comprising: a mobile transceiver device configured toiteratively transmit a first signal by cycling through multiplecommunication protocols, the first signal including a first datamessage, the first data message having information relating to thedesired item, the first message configured for routing to a computerserver; the mobile transceiver device configured to receive a seconddata message transmitted from the computer server, the second datamessage including an offer to sell the desired item responsive to adetermination that a provider has the desired item available for sale;the mobile transceiver device configured to receive a plurality ofadditional offers to sell the desired item from a plurality of vendors;the mobile transceiver device configured to organize the offer to sellthe desired item and the plurality of additional offers to sell thedesired item; and the mobile transceiver device configured to delete asubset of the offer to sell the desired item and the plurality ofadditional offers to sell the desired item in response to the subsetfailing to meet a desired criterion.